Thiago Alves to Face Newcomer Papy Abedi at UFC 138

A welterweight fight between former title challenger Thiago “Pitbull” Alves (18-8) and promotional newcomer Papy Abedi (8-0) is the latest addition to the newly announced UFC 138 fight card. The fight was first reported by MMAWeekly.

The event takes place on November 5 at the LG Arena in Birmingham, England and will air tape-delayed on Spike TV.

Alves will look for a return to his winning ways after dropping three of his last four fights to the likes of Rick Story, Jon Fitch, and Georges St-Pierre. Prior to the title shot against St-Pierre, Alves had been on a seven fight win streak, including victories over Josh Koscheck, Matt Hughes, and Chris Lytle.

Abedi, who is of Congolese descent and currently fights out of Stockholm, Sweden, is a judo black belt who has finished seven of his eight opponents, all on the European MMA circuit.

UFC 138 will be headlined by the UFC’s first five-round non-title bout between middleweight contenders five round middleweight bout between contenders Chris Leben and Mark Munoz.